


A Measure of Worth

by SalviaOfficinalis



Category: Cradle Series - Will Wight, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 20:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20823473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalviaOfficinalis/pseuds/SalviaOfficinalis
Summary: At the USJ, three main villains emerge from a portal of black mist. A white-haired man whose face is covered with a hand. A shapeless figure of black mist. And a smiling blond-haired villain with blue eyes...."Arelius?" Todoroki Shoto breathes.OR: Todoroki Shoto has four siblings. One is dead. One is a teacher. One is in medical school. One ran away at sixteen, leaving behind only artwork. Of the artwork, one is of a girl with a sword Quirk. One is of a girl with a shadow Quirk. One is of a blond-haired man with blue eyes.a.k.a. my pleasure piece for the ultimate niche crossover. Can be read with knowledge of only one fandom, either one works.





	A Measure of Worth

**Author's Note:**

> So. My first work, it's my feel-good story. I'll be writing some other ones soon, but this is basically my way of getting the story I've always wanted down onto paper. I doubt anyone will even read it, considering the number of stories in the Cradle fandom (it's one) and the number of people who read Cradle and also watch/read BNHA AND read fanfiction on AO3. I doubt anyone will even read this message. But that's okay, it's all for me.

_Two Years Ago_

_ Todoroki Shouto knows that there are inalienable facts about the world. The first thing Shouto knows is his family. His father will stop at nothing to train Shouto to surpass All Might. **Nothing**. He knows that he has <strike>four</strike> three older siblings, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Takumi. While he doesn’t see them much, he knows they exist. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Shouto vaguely remembers Fuyumi sneaking him out for ice cream on his ninth birthday. Before he left for medical school, Natsuo gave Shouto a slip of paper with a phone number and told him, “Call me if you ever need to get away from Dad. I have my own apartment and everything, yeah?” Takumi taught him to draw and paint and showed Shouto around his room, gesturing towards the artwork that littered the walls. <strike>Touya</strike> His oldest brother is gone. So is his mother._

_ The second thing that Shouto knows is that Quirks are everything. That is why he is Endeavor’s favored child, because he inherited the ideal Quirk. That is why Shouto is not supposed to talk to his older siblings, because their Quirks are imperfect. That is why Endeavor never even looks at Takumi, because Takumi is Quirkless. That is why his father married his mother, because their union would make the perfect Quirk. That is why <strike>Touya died</strike>._

_ The third thing that Shouto knows is that Endeavor’s word is law. That is why no one mentions that Todoroki Rei is in a mental institution, because Todoroki Enji is the second-ranked hero in all of Japan. That is why his siblings carefully avert their eyes from Shouto’s burns and bruises, because Endeavor would never let them help. <strike>That is why his mother had to leave</strike>._

_ The fourth thing that Shouto knows is that Takumi is leaving. He watches in silence as his older brother looks up from a suitcase to see Shouto standing in the doorway. It was inevitable that all his siblings would leave someday, and he knows this. Natsuo already left three years ago for medical school, and Fuyumi is only staying until Shouto is old enough to leave Endeavor legally. <strike>Touya</strike> Out of all of them, Takumi was always the one who was going to leave. His older brother is Quirkless, and in Endeavor’s household, this is as good as a death sentence. When Todoroki Takumi was born with black hair and dark brown eyes, it sealed his fate. The fourth child, Endeavor had already figured out the pattern to the Quirks his children inherited. And black hair? Black hair meant Quirkless, and Takumi’s fourth birthday and subsequent visit to the doctor merely confirmed that. While all Shouto’s siblings are failures in Endeavor’s eyes, Takumi is the most out of them. If only one of his siblings left, it was going to be Takumi. Shouto knows this, but it still hurts._

_ “Shouto,” the teen breathes. “Shou-kun, I-”_

_ “Save it,” Shouto says curtly. He looks around the room. “Are you not taking your art?” Ever since he can remember, Takumi has always had the art. There’s a careful progression in the skill of the drawings, moving from childish sketches up to the paintings that Takumi makes today, so realistic they appear to be pictures. When Shouto was younger, he used to ask who his older brother was drawing. Takumi’s face had become so forlorn that Shouto never asked again._

_ “No.” A moment of hesitation. “Would you like to hear the stories behind the art?”_

_ Shouto freezes. Of all the things he had expected to hear, that was not one of them. “Yes,” he says, more of a question than a statement._

_ Takumi walks over to a set of paintings, all featuring the same girl. Her hair is short and black, and six blade-like metal arms hang from her back. Most of the paintings depict her with a sword in hand, and some feature a copy of her made of blood with a vicious grin. Interestingly, some depictions feature numerous thin scars littered across her body, while others have none. Shouto’s brother sighs. “Yerin,” he says, “her name was Yerin. She was my best friend. Her… Quirk, I suppose, was a dual sword and blood Quirk. I suppose it could be classified as a mutation Quirk, but also an emitter and transformation.”_

_ Shouto takes a moment to wonder how Takumi even met Yerin, considering that their father almost never lets his children leave the house, but Takumi is already walking to another collection. It’s another girl with black hair, and her hands and covered in black gloves up to her elbow, no matter the picture. One of them shows her holding a bow, another with a dragon-headed staff. The majority show her wielding shadows and manipulating darkness. There are perhaps a few less than the ones of Yerin, but still an abundant amount. Takumi says, “Akura Mercy. Another friend, one with an extremely powerful shadow Quirk.”_

_ Hesitating, Shouto is about to ask when Takumi became friends with them when Takumi begins to speak again. “This is Ei- Arelius Eithan. A… friend with an erasure Quirk.” Arelius Eithan is tall and blond with blue eyes. He has a similar number of paintings to Akura Mercy. All the pictures show him as calm, perfectly controlled. Compared to the other two, Arelius shows no obvious signs of a Quirk. There are other, singular pieces of artwork littering Takumi’s bedroom, but none so obviously repeated like these three._

_ Shouto asks the question he’s been wondering the entire time, “How did you meet them? Why do you draw them so much? Why are you telling me all of this?”_

_ Sighing again, Takumi responds, “I draw them because I’m afraid of forgetting their faces. I haven’t seen them for years, and sometimes I wonder if I’ll wake up one day and not remember them. To your other question, faint hope you might meet them one day. I wouldn’t be surprised if every one of them were heroes.” He shrugs and pauses. “Shou-kun… do you want to leave?”_

_ “What?” Shouto is shocked. “Father would never allow it, Takumi, and if I did leave, we would be brought back within a week.”_

_ Takumi soldiers on, determined, and says, “Not if no one could prove it was you. If you had a different Quirk, no one would believe it if Endeavor said you were his son-”_

_ He cuts off his older brother, “That’s impossible.”_

_ Staring very intently at Shouto’s stomach, the older teen says, “No, Shouto. I don’t think it is.” Before Shouto’s eyes, Takumi picks up a knife from the bag and shallowly cuts his arm. He’s about to lunge forward and stop Takumi when the cut heals up. Then, Takumi holds up his arm, and it’s engulfed in burning black flames. His eyes are a burning black with red centers._

_ “W-what?” It’s something he’s always known, Todoroki Takumi is Quirkless. But that was clearly a healing or regeneration Quirk, followed by a fire Quirk._

_ “Shouto.” Todoroki Shouto has never seen his polite and quiet brother look more serious than he is now. “I could do it. I could change your Quirk. Will you leave with me?”_

_ Shouto hesitates, thinking of a life outside of his father’s reach. He could become something besides a hero, could live without Endeavor’s shadow hanging over him. Then he thinks of becoming a hero and what it would mean to him. “No,” he whispers. “I’m sorry, Takumi-nii, but no.”_

_ Takumi nods, as if he always expected it, and returns to packing a few final objects as Shouto watches. As he zips up his bag, Takumi turns to Shouto and says, “If you do see any of them… please tell them Wei Shi Lindon sent you and tell them my name. Apologies, but goodbye, Shouto.” Then Takumi is pushing the window open and swinging out without another word._

_ When Shouto leans over the edge, searching for Takumi, he sees nothing but a faint figure melting away into the night. Silently, he sneaks out, walking away to his room. In the morning, he wakes up to the sound of his father furiously bellowing and smiles. It’s not until then that Shouto realizes Takumi never answered his first question, but time passes, and his older brother slowly begins to fade to a memory <strike>like Touya</strike>._

* * *

_One Year Ago_

_ He’s done some research since then. When he looked up the names on the Internet, Yerin, Arelius Eithan, and Wei Shi Lindon all returned nothing, but Akura Mercy came up with Akura, the Merciful Hero. Some pictures of her matched up to what Shouto remembers of Takumi’s art, and she has a shadow Quirk. Although he tried to find a way to contact her, Akura Mercy didn’t work out of a Hero Agency, and no one knew her civilian identity._

_ Endeavor, upon being asked, responded that Akura was, “A pitiful excuse for a hero that was afraid to use any **real** force against villains.” Shouto was predisposed to like her after that, considering that his father didn’t, but had not obtained any useful information from the encounter._

_ At one point, he had attempted to go meet her in person, but Akura was based out of Fukuoka, and Shouto lived in Shizuoka Prefecture, meaning that he would never be able to sneak out of the household for long enough to reach her and then come back. He still wonders, though, how exactly did Takumi meet Akura? _

_Four Days Ago_

_ Shouto steps into Takumi’s room for the first time since his older brother left. It looks exactly as it did the last time Shouto was there, except for the fact that dust coats everything, from the paintings to the bed. “I’m going to UA tomorrow,” he says aloud. He glances at the collections of art. “I’ll look for your friends.”_

_ Quietly, he leaves and closes the door behind himself. He stops for a moment to think about going into Touya’s room, but Takumi only left, <strike>while Touya is dead</strike>. Shouto doesn’t go. Instead, he heads to the kitchen where Fuyumi is and later calls Natsuo. <strike>He doesn’t think about Todoroki Rei</strike>._

* * *

_Present Day_

Shouto stood in the entrance plaza of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, listening to Thirteen drone on about rescues and dangerous Quirks. Once the speech was finished, he glanced towards Aizawa-sensei. He had to admit, he rather liked his homeroom teacher. Aizawa was an underground hero, and therefore not after fame or money like Endeavor. It was an admirable quality, especially in the modern hero industry of advertisements and rankings. Suddenly, his attention was caught by a dark portal opening in the center of the USJ.

A man with a dismembered hand covering his face stepped out of the portal alongside two others. To the left was a figure made of a shapeless black mist, identical to the composition of the portal. On the right was a smiling blond-haired man. Shouto squinted. Was this part of the simulation? “Aizawa-sensei-” he began.

The teacher cut him off with a curt, “Don’t move. Those are real villains.” He didn’t move, focused on the mass of villains pouring out of the portal.

“Thirteen and Eraser Head, huh?” said the white-haired hand villain. “The teacher's schedule we received the other day said that All Might was also supposed to be here.” The villain glanced around. “Where is he? I went through the trouble of bringing this whole crowd, too. All Might, the Symbol of Peace. And he's not here? I wonder if he'll come if we kill some kids?”

Some of his classmates started chattering nervously at Aizawa-sensei, but Shouto ignored them. He was focused on the blond-haired villain. From this distance, Shouto couldn’t make out features, but the man almost looked like Takumi’s artwork of Arelius. No, that was impossible. Takumi had said his friends would be heroes, and Akura had been. Shouto must have been imagining it.

His attention was pulled back to the villains when Aizawa dove into the mass of enemies. Though he carefully masked it, his heart leaped momentarily in fear for his teacher. Upon seeing the Erasure Hero easily defeat the villains, Shouto relaxed minutely. He refocused himself back on the battle right in front of him as his explosion Quirk classmate and the red-haired spiky one- Kirishima?- launched themselves towards the mist villain blocking the exit. It was to no avail, as the villain easily blocked his classmates’ attacks. Suddenly, he was surrounded by a black mist that faded away just as soon.

Instantaneously, Shouto used his ice Quirk on reflex before glancing around. He was surrounded by villains, all frozen and struggling to free themselves from the ice. They were weak and posed no challenge. Clearly, these villains can’t be the main force and are nothing more than hired muscle. How were they planning to kill All Might? Shouto strode over to one of the villains, ready to ask, and hesitated. Takumi had offered to change his Quirk. That shouldn’t be possible. Instead, he asked, “Who is the blond-haired man?”

The thug in front of him blustered, “I’m not telling you!”

Shouto sighed. “My ice is cold enough to give you frostbite within minutes. Your extremities will slowly begin to freeze and will likely have to be amputated. As a hopeful hero, I’d like to avoid something this cruel. I’ll ask again, who is the blond-haired man?”

Staring at him in shock, the villain snapped out of it and cried, “Arelius! Arelius, okay? I don’t know anything about him besides that, that’s all they told us! And, and, the boss is Shigaraki and our warper is Kurogiri!”

Shouto heard the last few sentences, but all he could think about was the first word. _Arelius_. Taking off at a run for the central plaza, he heard the villain cry out, “Hey, aren’t you going to free us?” but ignored him. He was so close to finally meeting one of Takumi’s friends and solving this mystery.

* * *

_Present Day_

Gasping, Shouto skidded to the edge of the central plaza just in time to see All Might arrive with a loud, “I am here!”

Arelius smirked. “Finally, All Might arrives! I was wondering what was taking you so long. I’ve wanted to see how my skills match up against yours for a while.” He blurred, moving so fast that Shouto could barely see him. Suddenly, Arelius reappeared directly in front of All Might launching a kick towards his stomach.

All Might attempted to dodge, but failed, and was knocked backward slightly by the strength of the kick. The injury didn’t look serious, but more concerning was the white smoke that was pouring off him.

Shouto tensed. The white smoke was likely related to Arelius’s Quirk, but he simply couldn’t remember what Takumi had told him about it. He moved in closer towards the battle, trying to get a better view of Arelius’s face. Shouto was already convinced that it was the Arelius Takumi had told him about, but he needed to be certain. As he crept towards the center of the USJ, he kept his eyes on Arelius- there. Arelius turned towards Shouto, and he was certain it was his brother’s friend. Arelius was identical to the pictures.

“Arelius,” Shouto breathed. He had barely realized himself he said it, but suddenly, Arelius was there.

“Yes? That would be me,” the blond smiled. “Did you need something?”

“Todoroki-kun!” All Might boomed. “Get away from the villain!”

Shouto didn’t move. Instead, he repeated himself. “Arelius? Arelius Eithan?”

The villain froze. “Where did you hear that name?” He was still smiling, but the smile looked fake, pasted onto his face. When Shouto hesitated, Arelius gestured, and blue-white stars formed above the duo. “Where? Tell me.”

“My brother. What do you know about him? Ta- Wei Shi Lindon.”

As quickly as they had formed, the bright stars faded, and the villain whirled away. Arelius moved again, blurring, and reappeared next to Shigaraki. “We should go,” he said in an undertone, but still loud enough that Shouto could hear. Then he bent down to whisper into the white-haired villain’s ear, and this time, Shouto couldn’t hear.

Nodding, Shigaraki called, “Kurogiri! Time to go!” Turning towards All Might, he said, “Well, Symbol of Peace, I’d hoped to kill you this time, but it looks like that won’t be possible today.” A black portal of mist opened beside him, and he stepped in alongside Arelius.

Shouto collapsed to his knees, staring at his hands. What had just happened? 

**Author's Note:**

> On the off chance that someone did even read this story, thank you for reading all the way to the end! Updates will be irregular when I find the time to put them down onto paper.
> 
> Also, some of the "Present Day" section dialogue is taken directly from a transcript of the anime.


End file.
